Ingomar, the Barbarian

The 33 year old D.W. Griffith brings his stage experience to bear on the screen in this short film. Having been robbed of dialogue that he was used to in a play, he was forced to rely on visuals to tell the story, thus the term: show, don't tell.

"Ingomar the Barbarian" is the title of a film said to have been made by my great-grandfather, William Haggar. "Ingomar" the novel had been made into a stage play,popular in late Victorian England, which was acted by Haggar's theatrical company and many others. William Haggar filmed various of his company's plays between 1901 and 1908. Several of his films were shown in the United States (including "The Poachers", "A duel with knives" and "The Sign of the Cross" (the latter probably pirated by Lubin)), and it is interesting to speculate whether Griffith's "Ingomar" was based on, or inspired by Haggar's. For further details, see my forthcoming book, "William Haggar - fairground filmmaker" which is to be published by Accent Press Ltd. on 8 May 2007.